This is project 3, from dgarnier, a Deer Condo

Gun season here in IL can bring some cold and windy conditions, and while I spent many days up in a tree stand I want to expand a bit.

A friend had the base from some cage they were scraping at work. I was able to cut off the sides that left me with a steel frame. I then got a set of 4x4 leg mounts and welded them to the corners. Then each side wall is made form 2x2" and luwan so its lightweight. Then roof is a premade tarred heavy felt type material. The final size was 7'x6'x6.5' so there is plenty of space for 2 to hunt and I can stand up and strech out every now and then. Its really nice to have a shelf to put all my gear out on, and a swivel chair for 360 degrees of deer hunting action

http://www.chicagolandfishing.com/fo...&view=no_count

In the back you can see my old tree stand
http://www.chicagolandfishing.com/fo...&view=no_count

This years project is to add some windows to knock down some the wind

Your going to think I am crazy for saying this but, school bus windows work great for deer stands. The hunting club I belonged to back home; the club president bought old school buses from the city and sold the parts from them. Several people who built deer stands/condo's started using the school bus windows because they were free. You mount them upside down where you lift the window up and the work great!

Being from AZ We don't use stands. We walk miles and miles, shoot deer/javelina/elk at 300 yards or so, and then drag them back in.
I have a brother-in-law that baits for deer by planting special grass and having a salt lick. I see that as just free-range chickens. If they were any more tame he could ring their necks like chickens. Not bashing you guys at all, but is their no stalking or trailing or hunting involved?

Sniping at 300 yds isn't hunting, it's long range target practice. Try raising your rifle or bow at 30 yds without them seeing you and bolting.

Ian

Plus you walk all over looking for them - try patterning them so you know when and where they will be. In the AM the deer use the plot of woods that I am in to travel to the south west so I know to keep an eye out to the north west. Then in the afternoon they feed in the field just to the south of me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Haywire

Sniping at 300 yds isn't hunting, it's long range target practice. Try raising your rifle or bow at 30 yds without them seeing you and bolting.

Ian

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With a deer sized target that is not even target practice at 300 yards ;). Prairie dog sized target now THAT is target practice at 300 yards.:cool:

Thurmond

My last trip out west about half way through Texas on I10 took this picture from my car.
Talk about fish in a barrel. I'm sure with one shot you would have 10 cops pulling you out of your car.

Attachment 2388

"This years project is to add some windows to knock down some the wind"

I have the same problem with my Fishing Cabin only the wind is mostly coming from inside.:D


Glen

I lived in AZ for 3 years and never really seen any deer. Now I have been Iowa for 4 years and have seen more deer than I can count. I have almost hit them in my car more than a couple times. Friday night I had one almost run out in front of me. I probably could have stopped and pulled out a gun to shoot it 50 feet away. Here is IA, its not too hard to find them and I see them on crossing the interstate all the time and if there is water around then you are about guaranteed to seem them out in the fields.

its one thing to see them along the road..but out in the woods they are now where near as bold

MY wife got a muley 2 weeks ago today. Still haven't got the Jeep Patriot back though. $5200 repair bill. :(

Thurmond

Here in olel Virginia where I live you have to use a blackpowder, shotgun or bow on deer. Talk about hunting or long range target practice. How about ground hogs at 500 - 600 yards. We all know that every part of our great country has different aspects of hunting. Talk to someone from Montana or the Rockies and they will tell you if you don't walk 15 miles and climb several thousand feet you have been hunting yet. The thing is, we have the freedom, or what's left of it, to persue our hobbies as we see them. Either banging on a keyboard, striking an arc, fishing or hunting. That is the persuit of happiness.

Funny thing about shotgun or muzzle loader hunting is there is not much difference anymore. Some of these new slug guns with riffled barrels and sabots will shoot 150-200 yards easily.

Yeah, seems everyone is trying to improve on everything. I get strange looks when I still measure my powder instead of using the preformed pellets. Just an old habit/hobby. Doesn't take much to hunt from the edge of a field. The woods are different, limited visibility and all. I used to hunt in WV with a rifle. Anything within 400 yds (worked out strip mine) was no match. Kind of took all the sport out of it. Now, the most yardage I can see and shoot is 60 yds. Sometime so close you can watch their eyes move. Now that is hunting when you have to wait for a deers head to get behind a tree so you can bring your rifle up and hold it there for awhile.

yeah a mossberg 695 pair up the the hornady sst's...alomost like shooting a riffle. Really getting into bow hunting the past few years, and took a real nice 9point last fall that was 6 yards a way from the tree....

I tried those Hornady SST's, shot a deer at 40 yards with the blackpowder rifle, clean through the deer and didn't expand. I later recovered the round from a tree. Looked for that deer for over three hours in a swampy area. That was the last time I used those. Switched to the Powerbelt rounds and haven't walked more than 20 yards to get a deer since then.

I am using it loaded up for 12ga in the 2. 3/4 flavor...and while I have never recovered the slug, the deer have not gone more then 30 yards, and most fall with in 10 yards.


When I was looking in to ML seemed like the hornady xtp bullet had better number for ML then the sst's